Borders new boys sign off in style for Edinburgh

By Peter Donald

6:27PM BST 05 May 2002

IT WAS a poignant occasion for centre Kevin Utterson, hooker Steve Scott and lock Richard Metcalfe, as they helped Edinburgh demolish Llanelli 40-8 in their last home game before moving to the new Borders team.

Utterson had vowed to mark the occasion in style and he did so with one of the five tries in a sparkling team performance which, had it been matched by better consistency in the early part of the season, would have lifted them much higher than fifth place in the Welsh/Scottish League.

It was a depressing experience for the Welsh club, coming so soon after their Heineken Cup defeat by Leicester. Far from their producing a backlash from that result, there was a sluggishness in their performance.

Llanelli needed three wins from their last three games to make a serious challenge for the title but there must now be a serious doubt about their ability to reach the top.

After three years of competing in this Welsh/Scottish affair it is beginning to look as though Edinburgh are at last coming to terms with the professional game. But with the plug now having been pulled on this competition, it is unclear just how they will manage to perform in a revamped fixture programme next season.

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The introduction midway through the campaign of Todd Blackadder, the former New Zealand captain, has injected a new urgency into this Edinburgh side and it was fitting that he should score one of the tries against Llanelli.

Edinburgh now travel to play Pontypridd in their final match at the weekend and the players are in the mood to round off the season with a rare away win. A repeat of the form which saw off Llanelli should ensure that. They were in charge right from the start without outside-half Duncan Hodge opening the scoring with a penalty goal.

With Llanelli's defence looking shaky, Hodge took advantage to sent Utterson over for the opening try, which the outside-half converted. A dropped goal from full-back Brendan Laney and a converted try by winger Derrick Lee, made for him by Blackadder, the home side were 20 points ahead.

Stephen Jones put over a penalty just before half-time and Mark Jones went in for a try but it was all Edinburgh after that. The other home tries came from Graham Dall, Chris Paterson and Blackadder with Hodge putting over another penalty and conversion.

Glasgow almost made it a Scottish double in their home game against Newport. They led right up to the fourth minute of injury time against the side who had beaten them 55-5 in Wales but went down 28-26 after a late try by winger Llyr Lane.

It was still a commendable performance by Glasgow, who were without several top players. Calvin Howarth, making only his second start for them, contributed a try, conversion and two penalties. The other points came from tries by Rory Kerr and Roland Reid and a penalty by Tommy Hayes.

Matt Mostyn scored Newport's other two tries and Shane Howarth kicked two conversions and a penalty with Jason Strange adding two more penalties.

Kelly Brown collected a hat-trick of tries in the final as Melrose walked off with the Earlston Sevens Trophy, beating Watsonians 33-19.